The present invention relates generally to farm implements and, more particularly, a hydraulic control system for a foldable farm implement.
Modern farmers strive to improve the management of the increasing amounts of farm acres. Improving management requires farmers to be able to quickly prepare the soil and plant seed each season. This haste has driven the need for more efficient and larger agricultural machinery.
Implements such as harrows, packers, or combined harrow-packers are being made with widths exceeding sixty feet in the field operating position. Also, drill implements employed to distribute seed product across an agricultural field are also being made increasingly wider in the field operating position. Wider working widths provide more efficient field working such as by increasing the number of rows that are seeded in a single pass or by increasing the amount of field that is tilled in a single pass. However, as agricultural implements have been made increasingly wider, there has been a need for systems to compactly fold the implement for practical and safe transport over highways and through gates, and for greater maneuverability. These systems typically consist of hydraulic cylinders and valves that are controlled by a remote operator control to fold and unfold the implement.
Moreover, with agricultural implements, such as hoe drills, requiring fluid power (hydraulic) circuits to perform an increasing number of other tasks, a greater number of control interfaces are similarly required. The increased number of control interfaces adds to the complexity of the overall hydraulic system and reduces space within the operator cab of the towing vehicle for the implement for other implement controls. A narrow transport hoe drill, for example, will be capable of performing several hydraulically powered functions, such as raising and lowering the ground engaging tools, e.g., openers, applying a trip force on the ground engaging tools, and setting the amount of packing pressure that is applied by the packer wheels. Additionally, as noted above, the wing sections of the hoe drill, which are mounted to opposite lateral sides of a stationary frame section, are hydraulically folded to a transport position and hydraulically lowered from the transport position to an extended, unfolded position. A down pressure is also typically hydraulically applied to the stationary frame section and the wing sections to prevent the frame sections from pivoting upward due to the resultant force from the ground engaging tools. Moreover, as an air cart is typically used with seeding implements, air cart functions, such as fan operation and seed metering will require hydraulic control.